3 Ways to Keep Better Epoxy Finish

Mud Hole Staff

Don’t let the looming winter weather keep you from rod building, use these tips to build better rods year round.

How to Avoid Problems with Curing Epoxy

Although there’s no way around winter, there are a few ways to build and finish your custom rods without worrying about dropping temperatures.

Keep these three tips in mind and even the coldest nights won’t change your rod building plans.

1. Bring Back Crystalized Epoxy Resin

As the cold weather comes around, epoxy resins have a tendency to crystalize and harden with lower temperatures. Sacrificing crucial supplies will reduce your resources not to mention hurt your wallet.

Rather than suffer at the hands of hardened epoxy resin, employ the CRB Epoxy Bottle Warmer to revive your epoxy finish. By re-liquifying crystalized epoxy resin, this handy epoxy warmer saves your supplies and makes epoxy easier to work with.

With two bottle holders to warm the epoxy’s resin and hardener, you can use it to decrease the viscosity of both components. By preserving and increasing the flowing properties epoxy, the CRB Epoxy Bottle Warmer makes mixing and applying epoxy much easier even in the dead of winter.

2. Conceal Curing Rods in Drying Tent

From falling temperatures to dog hair, dust, and debris, drying epoxy has many enemies you don’t want to stick around. Since the drying process is the epoxy’s most crucial curing stage, it helps to shelter your rods to preserve their appearance and ensure a successful final finish.

Whether it’s damaging temperatures or contaminants, the CRB Drying Tent is a great tool for protecting and maintaining your curing epoxy.

Regardless of where you build your rods, CRB developed the Tent Drying System in order to keep all your unwanted debris out and all the right curing conditions in. A total of 110” in length (2 x 55″ segments when assembled), can fit up to 9ft fishing rods.

This tent is a basic “Dryer Box” that fits over your existing power wrappers, CRB aluminum base stations, and CRB single and triple rod dryers. Just assemble and drop it over—it’s lightweight for single person operations, features windows to keep an eye on your rod when drying, and collapses into a convenient carry bag for storage.

The CRB Tent Drying System allows for a controlled environment that keeps your rod drying safely within the enclosed tent.

3. Keep the Proper Epoxy Curing Temperature

Not all builders have a room dedicated to rod building. More often, rod builders use what space they can. For example, the bravest build on the kitchen counter and the smartest always lay down newspaper first.

Most rod builders turn their garage, shed, or basement into an ideal work space. The only issue is that these places often come with varying temperatures that can interfere with curing epoxy.

When these temperatures damage the curing epoxy, the finished rod loses that clean, sleek look rod builders want. The best way to avoid inconsistent curing temps, is to control the temperature with the help of CRB.

The CRB Work Bench Mini Heater regulates temperatures to keep rods curing properly regardless of the weather. It’s also conveniently sized to put out serious heat without taking up too much space on a work bench.

Powered by a 50W heating element and a 3500 RPM fan motor, this heater works to warm surrounding conditions. The CRB Heater also uses high-quality temperature resistant material and incorporated safety features to prevent overheating as your rod continues to cure.

Alongside the Tent Drying System, you can add this mini Work Bench Heater inside the tent for an unbeatable curing combo throughout the harshest of winter months.

Along with the CRB Tent and Heater, the CRB Tent Kit includes a handy peel-and-stick thermometer that has an easy-to-read temperature gauge to let you know when your work room is the ideal temperature for finishing your custom fishing rods. The sticker also includes useful finishing tips to make sure your wraps come out just right, every time.